ABSTRACT
Southern Africa has many sites that were persistent places, that is, locations that were repeatedly, though probably intermittently, occupied during the Middle Stone Age. Adaptable social circumstances are enabled through the invention of the snare, which can be set and tended easily by people of all ages. Brown and colleagues found that thin bifacial points, of the kind found at 71,000 years ago in the South African Still Bay Industry, could be experimentally knapped with a higher success rate on heated than unheated silcrete. The same technological principles that apply to heating rock for knapping purposes also apply to heating ochre. Ochre is a ferruginous rock containing iron oxide such as hematite. Hafting with binding agents like sinew or plant twine may have begun before the process of using glue or adhesive, but this is an issue that still needs to be explored archaeologically.
